A device of the above kind is known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 3,053,065. A device is also known from West German patent specification No. 3045758 in which the yarn feeder limit stops of conventional flat knitting machines are completely eliminated and the control device acts directly and exclusively on the electromagnetic coupling devices for the yarn feeder slides. It has been shown in practice, however, that flat knitting machines in which a knitting program can only be carried out if all of the data is given in a control program and alterations can only be made by altering the program, are disliked by the knitters. The knitter likes to be able to oversee the knitting production visually and therefore, there have been attempts in electronically controlled flat knitting machines to make the running of the program visually obvious and controllable by a series of display devices. There have also been attempts to give the knitter the possibility of inserting program alterations by means of a keyboard during knitting production. However, this is made difficult in that the amending instructions must have reference to a predetermined code.